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It was published by Page Street Publishing Co.

She found an agent in the United States, where she felt that the publishing industry was more diverse than that of the UK or Ireland. Publication history Īfter completing the manuscript, Jaigirdar began searching for literary agents. She also credited Ireland's literary culture with influencing her love of writing at a young age. She has cited works like the film Kuch Kuch Hota Hai and The Princess Diaries, as well as LGBT musicians like Hayley Kiyoko and Janelle Monáe. Jaigirdar drew inspiration from both Desi and Western media when writing The Henna Wars. She said that "I knew that this was the context I was writing in, so I wanted to be careful about how I portrayed sexuality, and its acceptance or rejection within Nishat’s family." While writing the novel, Jaigirdar tried to avoid Islamophobic stereotypes, particularly the portrayal of Muslims as homophobic and intolerant. She stated that she found it "difficult to reconcile queerness with Muslimness " when she was growing up, and that this influenced her portrayal of identity and sexuality in the book. Because of the lack of YA fiction about Bangladeshi teens, she felt pressure to make sure that the book offered positive representation to South Asian LGBT youth.

She turned that into a story about rival henna business, which later evolved into The Henna Wars. The main character's use of henna was inspired by her failed attempt to learn henna during a trip to Bangladesh. The idea for the novel came from her own experiences as a Queer Bangladeshi Muslim living in Ireland. She wrote the manuscript for The Henna Wars in the span of three months, rewriting the ending a total of six times before publication. The book received mostly positive reviews from critics, and was included on Time's list of the "100 Best Young Adult Books of All Time."īefore writing The Henna Wars, Jaigirdar worked on a manuscript for an adult literary novel about grief, but pivoted to the young adult genre after being inspired by writers such as Jenny Han and Sandhya Menon, who wrote young adult fiction about Asian characters. Set in Dublin, the book follows Nishat, a Bangladeshi teenager who comes out as a lesbian while in high school. The Henna Wars is a young adult novel by Adiba Jaigirdar.